The red hooded blossom and the fox in the forest
by Hanmac
Summary: AU: a NaruSaku story with a similar setting as "little red riding hood", first chapter Sakura-centric, will added Naruto later


**The Wakeup**

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><p>Disclaimer: I own nothing! If i did many things would be different. And Currently i don't even Own a working PC.<p>

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><p>The sun was already up and shining on her face, and whether she wanted to or not, Sakura was beginning to wake up.<p>

Her first thoughts were about the dream she just had. Of course she didn't remember all of it, but she knew what it was about – of her finally starting a family of her own. One where all the members loved each other. But she could still feel her heart beating the excitement through her body and that meant one thing. Sakura cursed. This was not the start to her day that she needed or wanted. One where she was wound up.

Remembering that she had work to do, but mostly because all the sunshine was getting annoying, she sat up on her bed and stretched her arms over her head. She was wearing a pink, see-through nightgown without anything under it, with the hope that someday, she would get to share it all with a special someone she would call her boyfriend, or husband. If she ever did manage to find the right one, anyway.

Shaking away such thoughts and standing up, she started her daily morning rituals to get herself ready for the day. Stopping in front of the mirror, she slipped out of her nightgown to inspect her body and frowned. The first thing that she noticed, that she always noticed, was her forehead, her larger than average forehead. It used to be the cause of constant teasing and bullying when she was young. She was older now and believed herself to be much more confident and mature but the insecurity never did fully go away. It also didn't help that her breasts were still so small when compared to others of her age, still only of a small B cup size.

She turned to the side, hoping for a better, or at least a different view, but it all remained the same. She cupped herself with her hands and tried to massage them like she did every day so they might grow bigger, but she had yet to see any significant results. Trying to lift her spirits, she admitted to herself that they were pretty perky. Her nipples, pink like her hair, were already hardening up from all the attention she was giving to herself.

Her hands traveled down her sides. She did not have the widest hips of all the girls she knew. She questioned herself, whether her hips were wide enough? If she would be able have children with them? Forget that, the question was, would someone be interested in her, with the way that she is. Her thoughts again wandered to the dream she had. She wanted to have someone to call her own, to care for and to nurture. She wanted someone who she could carefully guide through life. Again shaking such thoughts away, and admitted to herself that she was still in a growing age, things would improve in time and perhaps she was too young to be even dreaming or thinking about such things!

Then her gaze wandered downwards. She was a natural pink but the carpets were of a darker shade then the drapes. She was sure to keep herself neatly trimmed and again, she wandered, if her prospective love would like that about her.

She inspected the rest of her body, her legs were shapely and toned from years of rigorous training and an active lifestyle. Her tummy was flat and attractive as further evidence of said lifestyle. But it all fell short to her derrière. That was her most attractive feature, if she did say so herself.

Sakura grabbed her hairbrush, and started moving it through her pixie-style-cut hair, until they gleamed in the morning light. She knew that some boys preferred girls with longer hair, she even had experimented with it and let them grow, but it just never seemed to fit with her personality. Still, her current choice looked good on her.

She walked to her dresser and carefully considered her options. This was one of the toughest decisions - her panties and bra. She always gave it a lot of thought because she never knew if that day would be the day she met that special someone. Never mind the fact that it was very unlikely that even if she did find him, he wouldn't get to see her like that for some time.

She shuffled through her drawers and pulled out a matching bra and panty set. While the green would match with her eyes, it would clash with the rest of her outfit. She put it back and grabbed another. Pink - pink like her hair… no, that might be too innocent and the black ones too bold. Finally she chose the red ones, matching with the rest of the cloths she wanted to put on.

Sakura walked to her closet and pulled out her favorite red shorts and a mini skirt that reached the start of her thighs, just managing to cover her backside, which she thought might be her only feature that could grab the attention of someone. The top she chose was a corset that pushed up her small breasts, making them look larger than they really were.

She put the silver dagger that was from her mother on the holster that slung low on her left hip. It was a beautiful and deadly weapon meant to discourage anyone attempting to hurt her or those she loved.

At last, she took out her most precious belonging that hung in the closet. A red hooded cape, long enough to reach her knees, that she got from her grandmother when she reached puberty. It was a gift, and she was told that it would protect her from all the evil things that lurked in the forest.

While that confused her a bit at the time - what kind of evil things could be in her beloved forest? - she didn't give it much thought. After all, it was the thought that counted and her grandmother clearly meant well. Throwing the cape over her shoulders, she pulled the hood up. She took one last look at herself in the mirror, admiring how the hood framed her face and highlighted her green eyes, before leaving her room to go down to her parents.

When she got downstairs, sitting on the table was her mother, Mebuki. Her father was outside of the house, somewhere in the village. It made her a bit sad, that she missed her father again. He left the house so early to go to work. Every time she asked what her father was doing, her family always said that she was still too young to know about it.

She also has two siblings, one younger brother who shares her hair tone only a bit darker. He often got teased about it, a lot, but had learnt to keep it to himself, even if Sakura could clearly see that it was something that affected him deeply. She could relate as she got teased about her larger than average forehead too.

Her older sister, though, was a very different story. She shared the orang-ish hair color with her mother, and even if she was only a few years older than Sakura, she already looked way more mature, which made her green with envy and the unfairness of it all. Her sister sported a much larger chest size and she was ahead of Sakura in the hip departments as well. She knew it, Sakura knew it, she knew that Sakura knew it, but that still didn't make her above flaunting the fact in Sakura's face. Whatever. Sakura knew that some of her friends, still her age, were even more 'gifted', which when she thought about it, wasn't helping her own case any.

Her little brother was still sleeping in his room. He was like a whirlwind for days on end. With seemingly never ending energy and enthusiasm. But just like a switch, that energy ran out and then he lazed around for a day or two. She smiled at her thoughts, she adored that little ball of energy. She felt like a mother to him sometimes and hoped that someday, she might call something like him her own. Her mother hen attitude towards him did have its consequences though. He was very protective of her and tried to scare away any guy that even came close to her. Her special someone would have to pass her brother's approval as his first test of fortitude and loyalty, she thought with great amusement and a chuckle.

Her older sister was most likely already awake and away too like their father, but she was often in town, trying to paint it red, partying and drinking her days away. Sakura theorized that her sister got the drinking habit from their grand-mother. She shuddered at the thought of becoming a drunk herself. All symptoms pointed towards her being a light weight. Just a few gulps would be enough to put her under and enable her to make a fool out of herself.

Sakura sat next to her mother at the dining table. In front of her was her daily breakfast: a piece of bread with butter and sausage, a sliced apple and a cup of milk. She made sure to drink milk daily, hoping it would help her grow her size to that like her grand-mother.

"Are you ready to go to your grandmother's, Sakura?" asked Mebuki, her mother.

"Soon.", Sakura answered, drinking her cup of milk.

"I already packed the basket for your grandmother Tsunade" said Mebuki while giving her daughter the basket. Inside of it was a loaf of bread, a small strawberry cake, and multiple bottles of sake. Sakura didn't like that her grandmother drank so much, but it seemed to be the only thing that kept her happy after her husband walked away long before Sakura was born.

"Have you got your protection?" asked her mother.

"Yes mom, I have my red cape and my silver dagger" replied Sakura, a bit annoyed. She lifted her cape and showed her mother the silver dagger on her hip for good measure. "But I don't understand why I would need protection. I've been in the forest before and there is nothing dangerous inside!" said Sakura with some amounts of anger.

"But sweetie" begged Mebuki "I only want you to be safe!"

"I know, I know." Sakura sighed. She took the basket with the goods for her grandmother, went to the door, opened it and then turned back towards her mother to say goodbye.

When she was walking outside her mother yelled towards her, "And always stay on the pathway, don't leave it while you walk through the forest to your grandma's."

"... always stay on the pathway ..." mumbled Sakura silently so that her mother didn't hear her. "Yes mother, I know!"

And with that, she left her parents' house and began the trek towards the forest and her routine adventure through it.


End file.
